Debates on the Measurement of Global Poverty

Edited by Sudhir Anand, Paul Segal, and Joseph E. Stiglitz

Description

The international community's commitment to halve global poverty by 2015 has been enshrined in the first Millennium Development Goal. How global poverty is measured is a critical element in assessing progress towards this goal, and different researchers have presented widely-varying estimates. The chapters in this volume address a range of problems in the measurement and estimation of global poverty, from a variety of viewpoints. Topics covered include the controversies surrounding the definition of a global poverty line; the use of purchasing power parity exchange rates to map the poverty line across countries; and the quality, and appropriate use, of data from national accounts and household surveys. Both official and independent estimates of global poverty have proved to be controversial, and this volume presents and analyses the lively debate that has ensued.

Debates on the Measurement of Global Poverty

Edited by Sudhir Anand, Paul Segal, and Joseph E. Stiglitz

Table of Contents

Debates in the Measurement of Global Poverty: Introduction, Sudhir Anand, Paul Segal, and Joseph E. StiglitzPart I 1: The Debate on Globalization, Poverty and Inequality: Why Measurement Matters, Martin Ravallion 2: How not to count the poor, Sanjay G. Reddy and Thomas W. Pogge 3: Raising the Standard: the War on Global Poverty, Surjit Bhalla 4: Irrelevance of the $1 a Day Poverty Line, T. N. Srinivasan 5: Use of Country Purchasing Power Parities for International Comparisons of Poverty Levels: Potential and Limitations, Bettina Aten and Alan Heston 6: Measuring poverty in a growing world (or measuring growth in a poor world), Angus Deaton 7: Poverty or income distribution: Which do we want to measure?, Robert Johnston 8: A note on the (mis)use of national accounts for estimation of household final consumption expenditures for poverty measures, Ivo Havinga, Gisele Kamanou and Viet Vu 9: Unequal development in the 1990s: Focusing on gaps in human capabilities, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and David Stewart 10: Improving Measurement of Latin American Inequality and Poverty with an Eye to Equitable Growth Policy, Albert BerryPart II 11: The Changing Nature of Urban Poverty in China, Carl Riskin and Qin Gao 12: China is poorer than we thought, Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion 13: Poverty Decline in India in the 1990s : A Reality And Not An Artefact, Suresh D .Tendulkar, and K. Sundaram 14: Living Standards in Africa, David Sahn, Stephen Younger

Debates on the Measurement of Global Poverty

Edited by Sudhir Anand, Paul Segal, and Joseph E. Stiglitz

Author Information

Edited by Sudhir Anand, Professor of Economics, University of Oxford and Official Fellow of St Catherine's College, Paul Segal, Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and a Junior Research Fellow at New College, Oxford., and Joseph E. Stiglitz, University Professor at Columbia University

Contributors:

Sudhir Anand, University of OxfordPaul Segal, University of OxfordJoseph E. Stiglitz, Columbia UniversityMartin Ravallion, Director of the Development Research Group, World BankSanjay G. Reddy, Barnard College, Columbia UniversityThomas W. Pogge, Australian National University and Yale UniversitySurjit Bhalla, Oxus Research and InvestmentsT. N. Srinivasan, Yale UniversityBettina Aten, Bureau of Economic AnalysisAlan Heston, University of PennsylvaniaAngus Deaton, Princeton UniversityRobert JohnstonIvo HavingaGisele KamanouViet VuSakiko Fukuda-Parr, The New School David StewartAlbert Berry, University of TorontoCarl Riskin, Queens College, CUNY and Columbia UniversityQin Gao, Fordham UniversityShaohua Chen, Development Economics Research Group, World BankSuresh D .Tendulkar, Delhi School of Economics, University of DelhiK. Sundaram, Delhi School of Economics, University of DelhiDavid Sahn, Cornell UniversityStephen Younger, Cornell University

Debates on the Measurement of Global Poverty

Edited by Sudhir Anand, Paul Segal, and Joseph E. Stiglitz

Reviews and Awards

"While there are many publications on alleviating global poverty, this compliation of papers focuses on the fundamental issue of what constitutes poverty and how it is measured. This is an important concern since one fo the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is halving world poverty by the year 2015. Whether or not this goal has been or will be reached depends fundamentally on the definition of poverty, which in turn influences the measurement of poverty itself.... This volume addresses an important, challenging issue and will be of value to students and researchers of development economics and world poverty." - CHOICE